Funny you should mention Joseph Audio. I will be auditioning the Pearl Graphene this weekend
KEF, Revel, etc do not use a scientific approach, only Genelec?You (MKR) really owe yourself at least a listen to 8351/61 (+W371?) in a good room, if for no other reason than to hear what a purely scientific approach to sound reproduction is capable of. Might you a benchmark if nothing else!
Crazy enough there happens to be a dealer very close to me that carries Magico, Vivid, Joseph Audio, Audiovector, and Raidho! I had no idea until just recently.
| Frequentierespons | 50Hz-50KHz |
| Sensitivity | 86 dB/1W |
| Impedance | >6 ohm |
| Recommended amplifier | >50W |
| Twitterer | BØRRESEN flat ribbon tweeter |
| Manager | BØRRESEN patented iron-free bass/midrange driver – 4.5 inch |
| Finish: | Walnut veneer |
And my second audition trip report …
First, the dealer I visited was a very, very nice fella. A good human to be sure, so don’t take the following comments as a judgement on his character. But, I have never seen more audiophilia tomfoolery snake oil in one place in my ~40 years of being in this crazy hobby. Dedicated power transformer circuit only for the audio components, power conditioners everywhere, firehose speaker cables and interconnect, firehose power cables, cable lifters, thousand of hours of breakin required for speakers and electronics before they sound “good”, megabuck DACs everywhere, etc, etc. There must have been around $300k alone of snake oil in this place, not including any of the speakers or megabuck amps/preamps. It was bonkers. Name every negative nonsensical thing you can think of that us audio objectivists abhor in this industry/hobby and it was likely present at this dealer. The sad thing is this poor fella genuinely believed every bit of it and was fully drinking the kool aid. I wanted to have an intervention for him! With this said, I would recommend this dealer to anyone. Aside from the goofiness, he was genuine and honorable, and he treats his customers well, no doubt in my mind, just over the top with the snake oil.
Ok, enough of that, on to my impressions …
Vivid Kaya 90
Huge Rowland class D amps, Rowland pre, EMM DAC. Excellent midrange, low bass very good, but not full range. High freq extended and detailed but not harsh. Very nice. These really did nothing wrong and are well engineered speakers folks. They deserve the accolades. As to the looks, beauty definitely in the eye of the beholder with these. A “modern art” thing going on here that is definitely not my cup of tea. But well made and excellent build quality nonetheless. In conclusion, I would take some of the others in my previous audition trip any day over these, but again, very good speakers. They are dropping off the short list.
Audiovector R3 Arette
Driven by Rowland class AB. Big sound for small speakers, very good imaging, excellent midrange, good low freq extension for a small speaker, but wow that top end was hot. Reminded me a bit of mini B&W 801s. If someone wanted some smaller floorstanders with impeccable build quality, overall good performance, BUT, the ability to EQ that top end a bit, could be a contender. However, there are much better choices in this price range when you consider value/performance. For example, you can have a pair of Revel 328Be for what these Audio Vectors cost (!), that will blow the doors off of them if you value flat FR and much (much) more low frequency extension.
Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene
Rowland class AB amp, EMM DAC. These literally sounded broken. No low end, no mid bass, thin, boxy, and harsh on the top end. Recessed mid-range. Good imaging however. I am not sure what the issue was here, but these sounded like a decent size 80s boom box. The dealer agreed they sounded terrible and they were newer and needed about 3000(!) hours to break in. Ugh, eye role. They also were not running on his dedicated power network and that was also a reason they may have sounded so badly. Eye role. These are $44k loudspeakers folks. Oh well, they looked nice.
Raidho TD 3.8
Running massive MSB 2ch amp, Rowland preamp, Aurender source, blah, blah … As a rough estimate, these things must have had $300k of electronics and cable silliness connected to them. But they did some nice things, no doubt. Good soundstage (though for the size of the speakers I expected better), imaging on point, outstanding mid bass (very realist portrayal of drums). Strings also very nice. Build quality impeccable, beautiful speakers. BUT (you knew that was coming) … veiled, lacking detail, subdued highs (but yet some harshness on some recordings, not sure what to make of that). Also missing the lowest octaves, not full range, maybe hitting the 40s if they were lucky. Surprisingly lacking for such large loudspeakers/driver area. All the above to say that while these do some things right, they are clearly NOT flat measuring loudspeakers to my ears (not accurate/neutral). My suspicion is this is on purpose by the designers and catering to a specific audience preference. I do not care to dig up the FR, as I have had no interest in these, nor can I afford them, but I suspect some serious issues in the FR, especially in the top end. Overall, meh, especially for what these cost ($120k!)
In conclusion, I will put it this way … there is NOTHING I heard at this dealer that would cause me to give up my $100 JDS Labs DAC, 20 year old Onkyo Integra receiver, and $800 refurbished JBL Studio 590s. While there were a few things the Vivid Kaya 90s did better (overall a more refined sound, better midrange), my VERY humble system continues to astonish me. Now, some of the speakers I auditioned on my previous trip? Yes, there were definitely some that would have me relegating my 590s to side or rear channel theater duty
One last trip is planned to round out the list, but not sure when that will be, hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks. Will of course keep everyone posted.
Onward and upward!
.. I was warned that for what I needed, I would have to spend upward of $200K, yes. The strangest thing was that the fellow seemed to genuinely believe in his BS: No DSP in the chain, Cable to tame/shape the sound (e.g "don't use Nordsot with Magico speakers, better to "synergize" it with the mellow-sounding Cardas", Different DACs for better sound , of course increasingly expensive DACs... "Better" thus moh' expensive preamp and amp... Special Power conditioning since I had told him that I was off-grid... Tube Traps, a forrest of those, but also a few RPG "abfusors" ... since my room was dedicated to Hi-Fi, :stick to your original list.
And my second audition trip report …
First, the dealer I visited was a very, very nice fella. A good human to be sure, so don’t take the following comments as a judgement on his character. But, I have never seen more audiophilia tomfoolery snake oil in one place in my ~40 years of being in this crazy hobby. Dedicated power transformer circuit only for the audio components, power conditioners everywhere, firehose speaker cables and interconnect, firehose power cables, cable lifters, thousand of hours of breakin required for speakers and electronics before they sound “good”, megabuck DACs everywhere, etc, etc. There must have been around $300k alone of snake oil in this place, not including any of the speakers or megabuck amps/preamps. It was bonkers. Name every negative nonsensical thing you can think of that us audio objectivists abhor in this industry/hobby and it was likely present at this dealer. The sad thing is this poor fella genuinely believed every bit of it and was fully drinking the kool aid. I wanted to have an intervention for him! With this said, I would recommend this dealer to anyone. Aside from the goofiness, he was genuine and honorable, and he treats his customers well, no doubt in my mind, just over the top with the snake oil.
Ok, enough of that, on to my impressions …
Vivid Kaya 90
Huge Rowland class D amps, Rowland pre, EMM DAC. Excellent midrange, low bass very good, but not full range. High freq extended and detailed but not harsh. Very nice. These really did nothing wrong and are well engineered speakers folks. They deserve the accolades. As to the looks, beauty definitely in the eye of the beholder with these. A “modern art” thing going on here that is definitely not my cup of tea. But well made and excellent build quality nonetheless. In conclusion, I would take some of the others in my previous audition trip any day over these, but again, very good speakers. They are dropping off the short list.
Audiovector R3 Arette
Driven by Rowland class AB. Big sound for small speakers, very good imaging, excellent midrange, good low freq extension for a small speaker, but wow that top end was hot. Reminded me a bit of mini B&W 801s. If someone wanted some smaller floorstanders with impeccable build quality, overall good performance, BUT, the ability to EQ that top end a bit, could be a contender. However, there are much better choices in this price range when you consider value/performance. For example, you can have a pair of Revel 328Be for what these Audio Vectors cost (!), that will blow the doors off of them if you value flat FR and much (much) more low frequency extension.
Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene
Rowland class AB amp, EMM DAC. These literally sounded broken. No low end, no mid bass, thin, boxy, and harsh on the top end. Recessed mid-range. Good imaging however. I am not sure what the issue was here, but these sounded like a decent size 80s boom box. The dealer agreed they sounded terrible and they were newer and needed about 3000(!) hours to break in. Ugh, eye role. They also were not running on his dedicated power network and that was also a reason they may have sounded so badly. Eye role. These are $44k loudspeakers folks. Oh well, they looked nice.
Raidho TD 3.8
Running massive MSB 2ch amp, Rowland preamp, Aurender source, blah, blah … As a rough estimate, these things must have had $300k of electronics and cable silliness connected to them. But they did some nice things, no doubt. Good soundstage (though for the size of the speakers I expected better), imaging on point, outstanding mid bass (very realist portrayal of drums). Strings also very nice. Build quality impeccable, beautiful speakers. BUT (you knew that was coming) … veiled, lacking detail, subdued highs (but yet some harshness on some recordings, not sure what to make of that). Also missing the lowest octaves, not full range, maybe hitting the 40s if they were lucky. Surprisingly lacking for such large loudspeakers/driver area. All the above to say that while these do some things right, they are clearly NOT flat measuring loudspeakers to my ears (not accurate/neutral). My suspicion is this is on purpose by the designers and catering to a specific audience preference. I do not care to dig up the FR, as I have had no interest in these, nor can I afford them, but I suspect some serious issues in the FR, especially in the top end. Overall, meh, especially for what these cost ($120k!)
In conclusion, I will put it this way … there is NOTHING I heard at this dealer that would cause me to give up my $100 JDS Labs USB DAC, 20 year old Onkyo Integra receiver, and $800 refurbished JBL Studio 590s. While there were a few things the Vivid Kaya 90s did better (overall a more refined sound, better midrange), my VERY humble system continues to astonish me. Now, some of the speakers I auditioned on my previous trip? Yes, there were definitely some that would have me relegating my 590s to side or rear channel theater duty
One last trip is planned to round out the list, but not sure when that will be, hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks. Will of course keep everyone posted.
Onward and upward!
Thanks for sharing this report and look forward to the next one.
Thank you muchO for the report on your endeavor. It's very interesting to read the buyers opinions and experiences while narrowing the field.And my second audition trip report …
First, the dealer I visited was a very, very nice fella. A good human to be sure, so don’t take the following comments as a judgement on his character. But, I have never seen more audiophilia tomfoolery snake oil in one place in my ~40 years of being in this crazy hobby. Dedicated power transformer circuit only for the audio components, power conditioners everywhere, firehose speaker cables and interconnect, firehose power cables, cable lifters, thousand of hours of breakin required for speakers and electronics before they sound “good”, megabuck DACs everywhere, etc, etc. There must have been around $300k alone of snake oil in this place, not including any of the speakers or megabuck amps/preamps. It was bonkers. Name every negative nonsensical thing you can think of that us audio objectivists abhor in this industry/hobby and it was likely present at this dealer. The sad thing is this poor fella genuinely believed every bit of it and was fully drinking the kool aid. I wanted to have an intervention for him! With this said, I would recommend this dealer to anyone. Aside from the goofiness, he was genuine and honorable, and he treats his customers well, no doubt in my mind, just over the top with the snake oil.
Ok, enough of that, on to my impressions …
Vivid Kaya 90
Huge Rowland class D amps, Rowland pre, EMM DAC. Excellent midrange, low bass very good, but not full range. High freq extended and detailed but not harsh. Very nice. These really did nothing wrong and are well engineered speakers folks. They deserve the accolades. As to the looks, beauty definitely in the eye of the beholder with these. A “modern art” thing going on here that is definitely not my cup of tea. But well made and excellent build quality nonetheless. In conclusion, I would take some of the others in my previous audition trip any day over these, but again, very good speakers. They are dropping off the short list.
Audiovector R3 Arette
Driven by Rowland class AB. Big sound for small speakers, very good imaging, excellent midrange, good low freq extension for a small speaker, but wow that top end was hot. Reminded me a bit of mini B&W 801s. If someone wanted some smaller floorstanders with impeccable build quality, overall good performance, BUT, the ability to EQ that top end a bit, could be a contender. However, there are much better choices in this price range when you consider value/performance. For example, you can have a pair of Revel 328Be for what these Audio Vectors cost (!), that will blow the doors off of them if you value flat FR and much (much) more low frequency extension.
Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene
Rowland class AB amp, EMM DAC. These literally sounded broken. No low end, no mid bass, thin, boxy, and harsh on the top end. Recessed mid-range. Good imaging however. I am not sure what the issue was here, but these sounded like a decent size 80s boom box. The dealer agreed they sounded terrible and they were newer and needed about 3000(!) hours to break in. Ugh, eye role. They also were not running on his dedicated power network and that was also a reason they may have sounded so badly. Eye role. These are $44k loudspeakers folks. Oh well, they looked nice.
Raidho TD 3.8
Running massive MSB 2ch amp, Rowland preamp, Aurender source, blah, blah … As a rough estimate, these things must have had $300k of electronics and cable silliness connected to them. But they did some nice things, no doubt. Good soundstage (though for the size of the speakers I expected better), imaging on point, outstanding mid bass (very realist portrayal of drums). Strings also very nice. Build quality impeccable, beautiful speakers. BUT (you knew that was coming) … veiled, lacking detail, subdued highs (but yet some harshness on some recordings, not sure what to make of that). Also missing the lowest octaves, not full range, maybe hitting the 40s if they were lucky. Surprisingly lacking for such large loudspeakers/driver area. All the above to say that while these do some things right, they are clearly NOT flat measuring loudspeakers to my ears (not accurate/neutral). My suspicion is this is on purpose by the designers and catering to a specific audience preference. I do not care to dig up the FR, as I have had no interest in these, nor can I afford them, but I suspect some serious issues in the FR, especially in the top end. Overall, meh, especially for what these cost ($120k!)
In conclusion, I will put it this way … there is NOTHING I heard at this dealer that would cause me to give up my $100 JDS Labs USB DAC, 20 year old Onkyo Integra receiver, and $800 refurbished JBL Studio 590s. While there were a few things the Vivid Kaya 90s did better (overall a more refined sound, better midrange), my VERY humble system continues to astonish me. Now, some of the speakers I auditioned on my previous trip? Yes, there were definitely some that would have me relegating my 590s to side or rear channel theater duty
One last trip is planned to round out the list, but not sure when that will be, hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks. Will of course keep everyone posted.
Onward and upward!
I have heard speakers that I knew were good, Revel Salons, sound wooly and bloated on the bottom when connected to some ridiculous audiophile cables... eliminating the expensive cables and going with plain old copper fixed the problem. Sometimes audiophile snake oil is actually not just detrimental to one's financial well being.
I think he's having fun, and he about has it narrowed down to that anyway.
